The present invention relates to conditioning processing apparatus for performing conditioning or finishing operations including processing operations such as chamfering, beveling, tapering and thread cutting and inspecting operations for these processing operations on the ends of round bars or seamless steel pipes transferred from the preceding forming stage such as the rolling stage on a round bar or seamless steel pipe production line. More particularly, the invention relates to a rationalized conditioning processing apparatus comprising a plurality of end processing multifunction machines each capable of performing by itself the required processing operations and a plurality of end inspecting multifunction machines each capable of performing by itself the required inspecting operations, thereby performing the end processing operations and the inspecting operations, respectively, at a single fixed position.
For instance, in an oil well casing seamless pipe production line the semi-finished pipes which were rolled, cooled and cut substantially to lengths are transferred to a conditioning line where such processing operations as chamfering, tapering and thread cutting on the pipe ends as well as the required finish inspections for these processing operations are performed and then after screwing pipe end protectors, couplings, etc., on the pipes where required, the pipes are subjected to a series of processes such as hydrostatic testing, measurement and weighing and marking, thus producing the finished products. In the past, it has been the practice with such conditioning lines so that a large number of processing machines and inspecting machines each corresponding to one of processing or inspecting operations are arranged along each conditioning line. Thus, since each of these machines is a single function machine, there are disadvantages that not only the number of lines must be increased but also the efficiency of the machines must be increased in order to increase the overall line efficiency, that the operating efficiency of the equipment is subject to considerable variations due to variations in pipe end shape, that a huge space is required for installing the line since each of the single function machines requires its own table unit and that the specifications for the single function processing capacity of each single function machine are excessive since the machine is required to move in and out the whole length of each round bar or steel pipe each time only the pipe ends are processed or inspected.